I met him once. He was a pretty fair ballplayer who got fired by Wrigley as player manager because he told the truth about how bad the Cubs were. The Sox picked him up after that.

RIP.

WhiteSox5187

12-19-2010, 03:42 PM

Isn't he the last living member of a Cubs World Series team?

TDog

12-19-2010, 04:00 PM

I met him once. He was a pretty fair ballplayer who got fired by Wrigley as player manager because he told the truth about how bad the Cubs were. The Sox picked him up after that.

RIP.

And eventually, Wrigley decided no manager was the way to go, going with the College of Coaches to run the team in the early 1960s. Just as Napoleon emerged from the chaos after the French Revolution, the Cubs ended up with future Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher who built a mighty baseball army only to meet his Waterloo in the New York Mets.

TommyJohn

12-19-2010, 04:53 PM

Isn't he the last living member of a Cubs World Series team?I believe Andy Pafko is the only one left.

Wow. There are more living ex-Presidents than there are living ex-Cub World Series players.

slavko

12-19-2010, 07:16 PM

Philibuck as a Sox. Those were sad days for Cubs fans. They were in the midst of a 20 year Ice Age, the Go-Go Sox were capturing the hearts of Chicago, and Cavaretta, former MVP and Local Hero, winds up on the South Side.

Makes me warm all over.

Great ballplayer, RIP.

g0g0

12-19-2010, 07:24 PM

RIP Phil! :(:

TornLabrum

12-19-2010, 09:45 PM

And eventually, Wrigley decided no manager was the way to go, going with the College of Coaches to run the team in the early 1960s. Just as Napoleon emerged from the chaos after the French Revolution, the Cubs ended up with future Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher who built a mighty baseball army only to meet his Waterloo in the New York Mets.

Kind of. The rotating coaches experiment, iirc, didn't make it through a full season. Wrigley decided next to appoint a "head coach," possibly because he (Wrigley) was a "head case." At any rate, former Sox infielder Bob Kennedy ended up being "head coach," which meant that he was really the manager.

Lip Man 1

12-19-2010, 10:12 PM

And the justification for the "College of Coaches" in 1962 was that Wrigley felt a manager didn't do anything over and above what coaches did so he didn't deserve more money. Eliminating the "manager" eliminated the need to pay one guy on the staff more than anybody else.

:rolleyes:

And they wonder why the Cubs haven't won squat in eons.

Lip

LITTLE NELL

12-20-2010, 06:25 AM

Kind of. The rotating coaches experiment, iirc, didn't make it through a full season. Wrigley decided next to appoint a "head coach," possibly because he (Wrigley) was a "head case." At any rate, former Sox infielder Bob Kennedy ended up being "head coach," which meant that he was really the manager.

Actually it lasted 2 years, 1961 and 1962.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/mgrtmcc.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chicago_Cubs_managers

TornLabrum

12-20-2010, 08:33 AM

Thanks, Nell. I'd forgotten that the fiasco ran that long.

LITTLE NELL

12-20-2010, 01:02 PM

Thanks, Nell. I'd forgotten that the fiasco ran that long.

The fiasco continues, ongoing since 1945 without a series appearance, and of course without a WS win since 1908.
I love it.